Ghomi presented to EAC Secretary General Dr. Richard Sezibera a letter from Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Akbar Salehi appointing him as the country's
EAC representative at a ceremony held on Monday in Arusha.
The Iranian envoy expressed his delight at the accreditation, noting that Iran had very good relations with the five EAC member states. He pointed out that Iran and the EAC partner states needed to exploit their existing friendship for mutual economic benefit.
"In spite of the good relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the five EAC countries, I believe a lot of potential is not yet explored," Ghomi remarked, noting that untapped opportunities were many in trade and investment."We have to utilize these opportunities and the EAC is the best platform for this. What is important is for both sides to activate this potential," he asserted.
The Iranian envoy proposed a joint EAC-Iran conference on trade and investment, to which Dr. Sezibera responded: "We are open to investment. There are opportunities which we can explore together".
He urged Iran to invest in EAC infrastructure.
"The biggest challenge to our integration process is the lack of infrastructure to support the process," Dr. Sezibera observed, adding that the region welcomed investments in roads, railways, ports and energy.
He also applauded Iran as a "very good friend to our partner states" and assured Ghomi that the EAC looked forward to working with Iran "to advance our cooperation agenda".
Brazil, USA, Denmark, Turkey, Democratic Republic of Congo, Netherlands, Japan, Belgium, France, Canada, India, Finland, Sudan, United Kingdom, South Africa, Namibia and China are the other countries which have appointed representatives to the EAC.
Source The Guardian

Iran have acknoweledged the cruciality of EAC yet our leaders have not done enough in regards to raising awaress on the bloc among its citizens. There is paucity of general information on EAC and most average countrymen do not even understand its existence. I reckon a lot of effort need to be done on promoting it before mulling over launching of an all-out body.